Blizzard 0f 2013…

 

Driveway:

18 inches on the picnic table:

A wider shot of the ruler in the snow:

Side view of car. I only had energy to dig a narrow walkway to driveway:

My arborvitae next to my patio  does not look happy at all. Normally you wouldn’t see the yellow corner of my house:

Opposite view of arborvitae and front corner snow bank:

Corner snow bank looking up the street":

Looking down the street:

Are you craving French Toast?

If it’s Tuesday, it must be….

ummm… the day before Wednesday?

Well germs and boys (as Mrs.. Ahearn, my 4th grade math teacher would say), I manage to finish the stitching part of this:

Onwards to the BEADZZZZ!!!!!

Speaking of all that glitters, here are my options for finishing up my Heart in Hand Wee Santa:

The chart calls for 2 “wee” gold buttons with holes on either side of the hat, and 2 “wee” black buttons with holes under the candlestick.

 

My last foray to Joanne’s led me to find the Christmas-y Bag O’ Buttons and the Black & White Bag O’ Buttons , plus the tiny back-attached buttons in both shiny black & gold, and then I remembered I have a heat-set jewel gun-thing, hence the golden “jewels”. I have to pull out my other jewels to see if I have something dark. Or maybe go with the gold jewels on the hat and black buttons on the coat.

In other news, Delilah got her ovaries confiscated. She’s seems better today than yesterday.

Take Your Pick…

Snow Business….

Lot’s of it!

This is this morning, after shoveling twice yesterday, and again this morning (no work! Yay!) Another gray & dismal shot of the snow-covered trees:

We ended up with about a foot. It came down dry & powdery, then we had some rain mixing in to make it wet & heavy. This morning was also wet & heavy, turning dry & powdery- the old “If you don’t like it, wait a minute…” maxim.

I made out like a bandit with presents:

look at these:

The kids got me ALL of the charts I had posted about in November! Em even asked the sellers to NOT show their return addresses as anything stitchy since I retrieve the mail! How clever! Plus they got me a 500 GB external hard drive so I can back up my stuff, PLUS a new pair of work boots PLUS a bunch of new ornaments PLUS a book about Secretariat PLUS a bunch of chocolates & coffee & other little goodies! My mom sent a package of pecans and a check (THANKS Mom!)

The kids gave Chicken a Snuggie (LOL) and a new coat and several toys that she loves (she’s much better, acting more like her happy self every day):

Notice her shaved butt. I tried sticking bows around her satellite dish, but they kept falling off.

We had a fun day. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast (me), churros for Emily, eggs & sausage for Adam. They went out to visit Emily’s cousin from my “out”-laws while I went down to visit Bob.

When we were all back home, we had braised short ribs, from the Short Rib lasagna recipe I posted a while back, plus PW Creamy mashed potatoes, and broccoli. YUM!

I hope you all had a very nice holiday; thanks for visiting with me and leaving your nice comments- I do appreciate them!

November AND December ornaments!

I went to check out a stitching store in Walpole last weekend called Hoops & Needles. During my browsing I saw this tiny stitched cube, 1 inch square, made from a kit they sold. Of course, being a woman of a very little brain, I don’t have the slightest recollection of who made the kit- it was in one of those flat plastic boxes, a little bigger than a credit card. I do remember it was called “100 Pins”.

So, I went temporarily insane, and made my own versions, one in DMC Variations Red/Cranberry and Blue/Indigo.

Vee-O-LA:

And here they are with a quarter for scale:

The “100 Pins” cube was stiffer; I think it had some card stock lining the inside faces rather than polyfil. The clerk said something about it being hollow. Since I was flying by the seat of my pants, I used polyfil and made ornaments out of them. I used 36 ct. antique white linen, 2 over 2, and I poached snowflakes from various charts in my stash. It’s sewn together like a biscornu. It took between 4 and 5 hours to make each one. I’m pretty happy with the results!

I still have my "’Tis Red to complete, and I had picked out a beaded snowflake design from the 2007 or’08 JCS ornament issue for December, so I may end up with 14 ornaments this year!

Our Stitch & Bitch group is having our Christmas party tomorrow night at Mamma Mia’s, an Italian restaurant in the next  town over. Chicken goes for surgery Friday morning. And they’re forecasting  snow for Sunday. Chickie can’t be in the car with the wipers on; that ride home will be fun!

What I did on my 4-Day Weekend…

besides shovel horse poop and sweat my brains out:

Here’s the start of my July ornament:

“Swirly Snow” by Whispering Winds Designs. And yes, I have to get this done by the end of the week. I’ve already admitted to being a charter member of Procrastinators Anonymous.

Quaker Halloween:

I didn’t work on it all week, just at S & B. Speaking of which: here’s what Joanne cooked up for snacks last week:

Paula Deen’s “Not Your Momma’s Banana Pudding”. It was very tasty!

Last but not least, Garden Grew:

Halfway done! Here’s another shot:

Close up of where I left off on at the start of the second half:

Here’s my floss storage system for this project. A large Darice box to hold all the colors (80-ish I think?), and a small box to hold all the bobbins for each individual page. I swap out the colors I need for each page from the bigger box to the smaller. Some colors stay in the box from page to page. It takes a bit of time, but this system has been working just swimmingly because it cuts down on the rummaging for each particular bobbin.

Winter Wonderland…

My cell phone (new this year) takes the most crap-tastic photos!

Also, load one of daughter’s stuff was picked up & brought home yesterday. Sunday morning is the best time to drive into downtown Boston. Now I have about 4 more loads to do! (Corolla)

Let it Snow...

I've started the snow on PS Christmas Eve:

My plan is to add blending filament to the snowflakes, so I'm holding off on those as long as possible.

In other snow news, the Patriots opened a can of whoop-ass all over the Tennessee Titans. They were doomed as soon as the snow started.

Snow was still on the shady areas of the ground at work by the time I left this afternoon.

I had an eye exam tonight. The nice doctor showed me the huge difference readers/bifocals would make. And the nice receptionist kept adding double and triple digits to the $99 price on their "value" eyeglasses, first for progressive-ness, then for ultra-lite lenses. I used the excuse that I need Em with me to pick out frames because I can't see myself to know how good bad I look in any particular frames, and walked out with my prescription. Plus, when I asked if I could get over the counter readers for stitching, he immediately said "NO!" Maybe because of my nearsightedness issses? I'm pretty sure BJ's or someone offers 2 pairs for $99. I bet I could get a pair of readers and a pair of distance glasses for that deal.

I'm getting anxious to start The Pumpkin Conspiracy; i might pick out fabric from my stash tonight.....

Let it Snow...

My life now exists in snow depth increments: last night until 10 PM, I shoveled about 9"; this morning until 7:30 am, I shoveled another 4"; at 12:30 another 2"; and at 4:00 PM, another 1".

It's snowing again.

I'm so done with winter this year.

This is at 7:30 am, after I finished shoveling and cleaning off the car (and shoveling again). The snow on my picnic table is what was on my car.

"But where am I supposed to tinkle, Mommy?"

On the other hand, I got 3/4 of my cookies baked.

A Bit More...

Tote #2:

Now for some shoveling so Miss Chicken can tinkle.

Almost done...

I'll write about our Stitch & Bitch Xmas party later, but will say for now: It was fabulous! I had a great time, and so much wonderful, delicious food prepared by Joanne (who's house we were at) and Jeanne. I must confess to a cookie breakfast, too!

Snow day projects:

One of Emily's totes (she's gifting these to others- aren't I a good mum?) (More likely a sap mum):

I still have to tack 2 corners of the base inside and then close the inner lining and it's done. One more of these babies to do. This took all afternoon, but I spent a bit of time puzzling over the side corner instructions - not clear writing, nor clear drawings. Hopefully, the second one won't take as long. Then the only other obligation sewing to do is an insulated sliding door curtain for Bob. The snow started around 2:00 here; I may have all day tomorrow to myself for baking cookies and the curtain, and the tree, and the........

PS:

I'll get to that dream later too!

A Finish!

"Snowflakes" by Little House Needleworks

32 ct. Belfast Linen "Natural"

recommended Crescent Colors flosses and Weeks Dye Works substitutes

Photos!

Here's progress on FOS:

And Snowflakes:

And stash:

Each design gets more "Do this first!"

That's a cut of LSL "Lentil" for the Quaker Christmas Smalls.

 

 

 

Petunias (still alive???!!!)

Things we need to know:

Firstly, here's the remains of the cake:                            

It was extremely moist, almost dense, and rich. Great chocolate flavor, but I couldn't detect the Guinness. I will definitely bake this again, but maybe try 2 layers.

 

My ornament:

"Quiet Night"

by Erica Michaels from the 2007 JCS ornament issue on 28 ct. jobelan "Thyme" with on hand flosses : WDW & DMC

Stash:

BBD "Rites of Spring" with the 32 ct. belfast Linen "Country Mocha" & WDW floss for it.

 

 

 

 

Self-explanatory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               

Milady's Needle "Quaker Christmas Smalls"

I'm looking forward to doing these. Maybe June ornament?

 

 

 

I decided not to photo Snowflakes- it's rolled over too far on the scroll rods. I will try to finish promptly then take a picture.

Silly Me:

I forgot to say that not only did I finish my May ornament, but I also worked on Snowflakes. Didn't have time to take photos though, because...........................

I made a chocolate cake for stitching night! Of course I was going to make frosting but someone needed frosting for some cookies she just had to have a couple of weeks ago, and I was out of confectioner's sugar. If I can get to BJ's at lunch and get some sugar, I'll try to whip up some frosting before I head over to Deb's. Otherwise we'll have to rough it.

If any of my fellow bitches (See- I'm including myself in that!!) read this this morning, could you let the others know? I don't have anyone's email addresses here at work. Thanks!

If I'm any kind of woman I'd also photo the cake too. It's the Chocolate Guinness cake from Cookie Madness.

Alright already!

Here's progress on both FOS (aka Creepy Kids) and Snowflakes: 

 

I'm getting close enough to smell the end of FOS- I'm at the point of really wanting this one to be done so I can get to something else.

Emily is licensed now to drive carriages in Boston; she was on her own today for the first time with a horse named Jody.

And Big Brown won the Preakness yesterday; now it's on to the Belmont in 3 weeks. A grueling mile and a half, a true test of a champion. My fave- Secretariat still holds the record- 2:24 and he won by a (another) record of 31 lengths. Hey- I just found this site- who knew? http://www.secretariat.com/

Off to maybe stitch!

Calgon Take me Away!

I DO have progress on Snowflakes (a wee bit) and FOS, but haven't had time nor energy to break out the camera for pix. I will try to do so tomorrow.
I picked Bob up today, and also what I hope are the last two bales of hay for Axe. Why the last two? Well, I'm moving her to another barn! YAY! my #1 choice still has no open stalls, but Ernie my farrier recommended this other private barn. They have an indoor- smaller than HBF, but still good size, an outdoor, only 7 horses (including the Axe) so it's very manageable- like being able to turn the horses out mid-morning if the weather improves, unlike HBF, where Axe stayed in all day today, even though it had turned glorious by 11:00 am. Plus- GRASS paddocks!!!!! She's going to be so excited! I had to order a grazing muzzle today, though, to control how much she eats at first. Emily knows about the move & seems to like the place. I took her there last week when she came home with the rest of her stuff & to ride. The decision to leave HBF was confirmed in her mind as Bob the barn manager described how quickly things are turning bad up there. I won't go onto any of it- suffice it to say it's turning into a very timely, very wise decision to leave while the getting is good.
So I cooked a couple of chickens in the rotisserie oven (yes, I have a "Set it and Forget it") and they were scrumptious (well, we only finished 3/4 of one- they were about 3.8 lbs each) but why in all that's good in the world does a chicken dinner have to require every pot, pan & serving dish in the house???? I have to say, that the only reason i can take doing all the dishes is that the chickens come out SO good!
I will try to post pictures tomorrow. Of stitching, not chicken.

Stash Alert!

Look at this behemoth:

It's 400 w x 320 h stitches! That would kind of qualify as an heirloom, don'tcha think??!!

Well, it's mine- all mine! I'll get started on it as soon as I finish "Whistlejacket".

RIIIIIIIGHT.

Finally some visible progress on the grass for FOS (aka Creepy Kids):

Minor catastrophe averted: the green is "Avacado" by Gentle Arts. I knew I'd be needing more as of last week when I started the grass, and looked on Deb's racks tonight. Well, the dye lot has changed to a totally different color. Pissa. I pulled 5 or 6 similarly hued skeins, from Weeks, GA and Crescent Colors, and found a 97% close CC. I'm tweeding a strand of the old floss with the new; I don't think it's too noticeable.

No Snowflakes progress. :^(

FYI: if you've ever tried those dried off the shelf tortellinis, the Barilla brand is way better than the Ronzoni brand. But my Corona is helping with that problem.

LOST tonight, not that I can stay awake that long.